New Survey Reveals Global Perceptions of Transgender People

The survey asked respondents questions on topics such as how familiar they were with transgender people, their views on the rights of transgender people, pronoun usage, and their opinions regarding a transgender person’s place in society.

The survey data was collected online between October 24th and November 7th, 2017 and included the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Ecuador, France, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the United States of America.

The results released from the survey focused on 16 of the countries from which they received a large enough sample size to certify the data as an accurate measure. Those countries are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Poland, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. The sample size for these countries was from 19,747 adults aged 18-64 in the US and Canada, and age 16-64 in all other countries.

Here are some of the findings from the survey:

General Opinions

52% of respondents said that they believed being transgender is a natural occurrence. The United States was ranked 13th out of 16, with 47% in agreement.

23% saw being transgender as being a mental illness (32% in the US).

19% believed being transgender is a physical disability (17% in the US).

14% said being transgender is a sin (32% in the US) while 15% said transgender people have a spiritual gift (21% in the US)

(Photo: Ipsos.com)

Transgender People and Society

59% said their country is becoming more tolerant of transgender people (71% in the US).

21% feel that society has gone too far in accepting transgender people (36% in the US).

60% wanted to see their countries do more to protect transgender people (51% in the US).

Transgender Rights

70% of respondents felt that their government should protect people from discrimination (73% in the US).

61% felt transgender people should be allowed to serve in their militaries (65% in the US).

59% supported transgender people having biological children (when possible) and 55% supported transgender people being allowed to adopt (65% for both instances in the US).

(Photo: Ipsos.com)

Pronouns

Roughly 2 out of 5 people would use the correct pronoun when addressing a transgender person in the US. 1 in 5 would misgender a transgender person while an average of 17.5% would use a gender neutral pronoun. 23% of the respondents did not know which pronoun they would use.